


Smile

by yuletide_archivist



Category: Law & Order
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-12-20
Updated: 2006-12-20
Packaged: 2018-01-25 06:56:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,219
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1637711
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yuletide_archivist/pseuds/yuletide_archivist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Story by seattlekos</p><p>Goren realizes what he has in Eames, when she's viciously attacked by a suspect.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Smile

**Author's Note:**

> Written for memorycharm

 

 

Sad, tired eyes stared at the prone, still and disturbingly silent figure in the hospital bed.

Detective Alexandra Eames was in a chemically-induced coma, to give her brain and body a chance to heal after she was attacked in an abandoned old warehouse in Hell's Kitchen.

Her partner, Detective Robert Goren, was sitting vigil by her, holding her hand. The doctors had told him it'd be at least another day before they would attempt to bring her to consciousness.

Her brain had been severely concussed by the beating she'd taken, when she and Bobby were momentarily separated, looking for a suspected rapist and murderer.

An anonymous tip led them there, with Captain Deakins' knowledge. They had a sketchy description of the assailant, and the captain told them to take a couple of uniformed officers along with them, just in case.

Unfortunately for Eames, the description didn't include one important detail: the suspect looked virtually identical to her partner Goren in the unlit warehouse. Same massive build and height, same dark hair and fair skin. Eames was the first to know that the man's eyes were ice-blue, not a deep, chocolate brown like her partner's.

It hadn't taken the man long to beat her, she was so tiny in comparison. Goren swept in like an avenging angel, pulling the man, equal to him in size, off of her. With the adrenalin spurring Bobby on, the man had no chance to flee. Bobby had to call on every moral fiber of his being not to beat the man to death then and there for daring to hurt his partner, but somehow he'd summoned the strength to simply punch him into unconsciousness, with the excuse of subduing him.

Bobby replayed the incident in his mind, again, to determine where it had all gone so terribly wrong...

*********

Eames turned to the two uniformed officers, a man and a woman.

"You two, go in over there," she ordered them, as the senior detective on-site. "Detective Goren and I will go in this way. The floorplan I downloaded says two corridors meet up about fifty feet. We'll wait there for you if we get there first."

"Right," the female officer acknowledged, and motioned for her rookie partner to trail her.

As they'd done dozens of times before, Eames took point, her firearm poised and ready. She paused, listening, and heard Goren stop about ten feet behind her. She was confident he had her back, as he always did.

She motioned with her hand, indicating a partially opened door to her left. Knowing Bobby would be behind her, she carefully shoved the door open, listening, and when no sound emerged, she jumped in, sweeping the barrel of her gun around for the suspect.

Goren waited in the dark hallway, and wanted to sigh in relief when Eames returned.

"Nothing," she whispered when she felt him come up behind her. "Let's check up a little further."

Bobby nodded his head, even if it was too dim for Eames to see it.

The two froze on the spot when they heard a yell, which sounded like the young rookie with the older female officer.

When no other sound emerged, Bobby looked worriedly at Alex.

She nodded her head, and said, "Go. Make sure he's okay. I'm fine here for a few seconds."

"Okay, hang tight, won't be more than a minute," Bobby said, running toward the turn-off to the corridor the two uniformed officers had taken.

Eames took the opportunity to check another room, which proved to be empty. She turned toward the door across the hallway, when she heard a scuffling sound behind her. Believing Bobby had returned from his task, she turned to speak over her shoulder to the tall man rapidly approaching her, "The kid all right? Something spook him?"

Before she could yelp in surprise, a viselike grip grabbed her thin shoulder, spinning her around, and a fist smashed her nose. She bounced back into the plywood wall, which made her ricochet forward into the man's fist again. He punched her over and over, and as she collapsed to the ground, she saw from between swollen lids her partner's huge bearpaw grab the man around the head, over the chin, and yanking him back.

Alex fought the enfolding blackness, her vision red with internal hemorrhage, as she struggled to hold her head up long enough to see her partner pound his great fist into the man's face, over and over. A small, cognizant part of her wanted to open her mouth to reprimand Goren, to tell him he'd have an administrative review board to face if he killed the creep, but she couldn't make any coherent sound come out of her bleeding, puffy lips.

"B-bobby," she managed to squeak out. The man froze, his left hand holding the assailant by the shirt collar, his powerful arm poised over him to deliver yet another smash to the bleeding and broken face. He stared into the eerily ice blue eyes looking up at him in desperation and fear, as if weighing how satisfying it would be to polish the man off then and there, and how much trouble he'd be in if he did so.

Duty to his badge, his captain and his partner finally made him relent, and he released the man, allowing him to collapse to the floor, the back of his head making a dull thud as it hit the concrete.

"Eames!" Goren yelled, kneeling down to gently touch her swollen face. He held her brown eyes with his own for a few seconds, and she capitulated to the overwhelming desire to sleep, to fall into that black void calling her to comforting darkness. She managed a wan smile as the last thing she saw was Bobby's big brown eyes, filling her blurry vision, looking down upon her.

He screeched into his radio, "This is Goren, we need an ambulance! Officer down!"

*********

Bobby looked up when he heard a rustling sound, as Captain Deakins moved the privacy curtain aside. The Captain was shocked by the detective's bloodshot eyes, and dark circles enveloping them like a raccoon's.

"You look dead tired, Goren," he said softly.

"No need to whisper, Captain," Bobby's rough voice grated out. "She's in a coma."

The startled look on Deakins' face made Bobby explain quickly, "Chemically-induced, Captain. So she can relax completely, and give her brain a chance to heal."

"Oh, okay. I hadn't had a chance to talk to the doctors. She's had on-file for quite some time that we're allowed to discuss it if she's ever wounded on duty with the staff."

"I know, that's a relief. I'd hate to have to mess someone up."

He smirked to show Deakins he was still with it, not as zombielike as he knew he looked.

"Did you call her brother?" Deakins asked, taking the seat beside Goren.

"Yes, I did after they took her into exploratory surgery, so they could check for any internal hemorrhaging. He's flying in as soon as he can."

Deakins nodded his head. "Good, I know they're close, especially since the baby."

The two men remained quiet, simply looking down at Eames. The smile that had crossed her bloody mouth was still there, and Deakins looked at Goren, his eyebrows raised in silent query.

Bobby smiled down at her, and said, "She's been smiling since she fell unconscious. I don't know why, either. Maybe she's having a good dream? I only hope so. It'll make this coma a lot more bearable."

Bobby had no idea how correct he was. As is commonly believed, that people in a coma can hear those around them, Alex was listening in on the conversation between her partner and her boss.

Deakins remained in the room a while longer. He broke the silence by smacking his hands to his knees, and stood abruptly.

"Well, I just wanted to drop in, see how she was doing. And how YOU were doing too, Goren. You okay then?"

"Sure, boss. We're both fine." He said that last with such conviction, because he couldn't imagine his diminuitive partner being anything else.

"Okay, I'll talk to you, and HER, tomorrow then. Try to get something to eat and drink at least, Bobby. Take a nap."

"Yes, sir," Bobby said, saluting Deakins.

The older man smiled, and took Eames' hand from her partner. He leaned down and whispered, "We're all praying for you, Alex. We know you'll be fine, and we'll see you when you return to the house."

He kissed her fingers quickly, and returned the hand to Bobby.

Before his detective could see the tears welling up in his eyes, Deakins made a hasty retreat, shutting the door quietly behind him.

Bobby looked around the curtain, to the door, to be sure it was secured. He pulled his chair as close to the bed as he could, his knees banging against the railing because he couldn't comfortably accommodate his long legs.

Both hands clutched the tiny hand to him, against his chest. He leaned over the railing, till his face was about six inches from Alex. The bruises, stitches and swelling disturbed him, but he wouldn't let that deter him from what he had to say, before the next round of nurse and doctor visits.

"Alex, I know you can hear me in there," he whispered. "I wish I could tell you to squeeze my hand to let me know, but I know you can't."

He stopped for a moment, as if willing the hand to squeeze any way, against all scientific and medical evidence to the contrary. When it didn't, he continued.

"Alex, I'm sorry I wasn't there. I should've been there, I'm your PARTNER! I know you told me to go check on the kid, but still... I'm supposed to have your BACK and I didn't!"

Bobby lowered his head over her hand, as if in prayer, and drew a long, shuddering sigh. "I know, I know," he said, as if answering her. He knew her so well, that he knew she'd say, "You were doing the job, Goren."

"I keep telling myself that!" he continued, again as if she'd spoken. "When I saw him hitting you, and you collapsing, I... I wanted to kill the guy. You know I haven't gone berserk in a long, LONG time, thank goodness. But this time... it was you saying 'Bobby' that saved that bastard's life!"

Again, he knew she'd say something unusual, with that dry wit he loved, "Language!"

And he could hear her slight chuckle. She'd never been emotionally demonstrative, one of the reasons he liked her for a partner. Other female partners he'd had would go on and on about the stupidest things, but not his Alex. She said her peace when she had to, and kept her mouth shut otherwise. And she could read him like a book, and used that to criminals' disadvantage. He'd start in on one of his charades to break a suspect, and she'd jump right in without any verbal cue.

He pondered all this about his partner. His Alex. When had he started thinking of her as "his" Alex? Today, after the beating? No, surely it was before then. Over the last several months, they'd both been learning bits and drabbles about one another. He was flabbergasted to learn she'd been the prom queen.

His ever-analytical mind replayed many conversations the two had shared over their conjoined desks, and he realized it was after that startling and casual declaration that his fascination with her transformed from partner to woman. A very beautiful, intelligent, capable and SINGLE woman. Who happened to be senior to him, technically "in charge" when they went out on cases, and a most reliable partner.

Trust was one of the first things partners had to earn, and demonstrate, with one another. And Alex Eames had done that beautifully, early in their partnership. Now Bobby had to realize that trust had grown into something else. He logically surmised that his reaction to her being beaten was simply as partner to partner, but as the hours of vigil wore on, he knew he was lying to himself.

He loved her as more than a partner, more than a friend. And he'd never taken the chance to tell her.

His heart raced as he thought about it. She can hear you, Goren, he thought to himself. A small voice seemed to counter, Are you so sure?

Tell her.

Don't tell her.

What if this is it, your last chance to tell her? What if next time, you don't have the chance? It may be too late.

The thought of losing Alex for real, in death, scared Bobby Goren to the core of his being. He knew they faced death every day that they stepped out of One Police Plaza in their war on crime, but he'd always managed to keep that fear for his partner at bay.

He nodded his head, as if settling this argument within himself, and blurted out, "I love you, Alex."

After that simple and succinct declaration, Bobby heard one of the most beautiful things in the world... the beep beep beep of the heart monitor increased in speed. He knew that she heard him, understood, and suddenly knew what that smile meant.

 


End file.
